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SHRINES AND SHADOWS 



Shrines and Shadows 

(One hundred short poems) 



BY 

JOHN ROLLIN STUART 




Boston 

The Four Seas Company 

192 1 



Copyright, iQ2i, by 
The Four Seas Company 



5-^ 



^s^^^^ 



The Four Seas Press 
Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



JUL -9 '21 

(5)CI.A617626 



CONTENTS 



BOOK ONE 
The Mantle of Eros 



I. Let This Be My Nirvana ... . n 

II. The Minstrel to His Love . . 12 

III. Our World a Boundless Place . 13 

IV. We Walk, My Love and I . . 14 
V. Life Shall Be Victory . . . 15 

VI. Sufficiency 16 

VII. Through Endless Eons ... .17 

VIII. Until You Came 18 

IX. The River of Peace 19 

X. In Sacred Keeping 20 

XL No Gale Our Harmony Shall 

Mar 21 

XII. Sailing 22 

XIII. Our Love Is Vindicated ... 23 

XIV. Though You Walk Not Here . 24 
XV. When Thou Art Gone .... 25 

XVI. Parted 26 



CONTENTS 



BOOK TWO 

Gifts of the Magi 

I. Venice at Night 29 

II. Man and the Seasons .... 30 

III. Of Friends 31 

IV. My Fairyland 32 

V. The Scripture of Summer . . 33 

VI. What Bounty Gain 34 

VII. Of Beautiful Things .... 35 

VIII. Oxford 36 

IX. At the Swimming-hole ... 37 

X. Springtime Melody 38 

XL Art 39 

XII. Magdalen Tower at Oxford . . 40 

XIII. Song in the Sunshine .... 41 

XIV. Bells 42 

XV. Science Is Not All .... 43 

XVI. The Statue 44 

XVII. On Seeing the Ruins of the 

Forum 45 

XVIII. Beauty 46 

XIX. The Street 47 

XX. In Youth's Big Days .... 48 

XXI. Spring Optimism 49 

XXII. To A Certain Sculptor .... 50 

XXIII. In Summer 51 

XXIV. The Improviser 52 

XXV. Harvard 53 

XXVI. The Recruit 54 

XXVII. Autumn Reverie 55 

XXVIII. Because of the Beauty ... 56 

XXIX. Books 57 



CONTENTS 



I. 
11. 
III. 
IV. 
V. 
VI. 
VII. 
VIII. 
IX. 
X. 
XI. 
XII. 
XIII. 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 
XX. 
XXI. 
XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 
XXV. 
XXVI. 
XXVII. 
XXVIII. 
XXIX. 



BOOK THREE 
Jugglers of Values 

The Brave ' ^ 

Beauty ^ 

Loyalty ^3 

Anchorage ^4 

Yesterdays 05 

In Nocte Lumen 66 

Youth Invincible 67 

Till He Has Worshipped .... 68 

Truth ^ 

Which Things Are Good? ... 70 

Mind and Body 7^ 

Fame and the Builder . . . • 7^ 

Hope 73 

Inconstant Haloes .... 74 

Waves of the Sea 75 

The Fairy of the Love-of-Life 76 

Resolve! 77 

Daydreams 7^ 

The Two Roads 79 

Characters ^o 

Fight On! oi 

I Am the Truth Who Knows ... 82 

The Mode ^3 

Failures |4 

Despair ^1 

The Twisted Skein 86 

Redemption ^7 

Happiness |^ 

Till One Stone 89 



CONTENTS 



XXX. Love, Will and Sight . 

XXXI. But We Are Winning . 

XXXII. In Valleys Criscrossed 

XXXIII. I Would Not Sleep . . 



90 

91 
92 

93 



BOOK FOUR 
Beyond the Harvest 

I. We Seek Reunion 97 

II. Beyond the Borderland ... 98 

III. Vistas 99 

IV. Eternal Sorrow 100 

V. Trees and Men ...... ioi 

VI. To the Westwind 102 

VII. Lament 103 

VIII. Horizons 104 

IX. Fantasy 105 

X. A Wish 106 

XI. Today Is One of the Bright 

Days 107 

XII. Faith 108 

XIII. Unhappy Powers 109 

XIV. The Dream no 

XV. Viewpoints in 

XVI. The Suicide 112 

XVII. All Told 113 

XVIII. Out of the Desert .... 114 

XIX. \lone 115 

XX. My Life a Patchwork . . . 116 

XXL I Have the Love 117 

XXII. The Temple 118 



BOOK ONE 

The Mantle of Eros 

"Love is a circle, that doth restless move 
In the same sweet eternity of love." 



LET THIS BE MY NIRVANA , . . 

Let this be my nirvana — last release — 
To know in You, that beauty cannot cease. 
Then all the uncouth striving and the pain 
Of pander to a sickly, finite gain, 
Is vanished with the body of desire : 
I leave Earth's mausoleum to the fire. 



I"] 



THE MINSTREL TO HIS LOVE 

Now when the flowers from Earth aspire 
And the blood of youth runs free, 
And the land of sunset glows in fire — 
Thy love enraptures me. 

Whatever wrinkling Time may store 
My love a deathless butterfly, 
Ever in friendly skies shall soar * 

Where death is but an opening eye. 

And fairy fingers of a constant Spring 
Through countless morns shall weave our bower. 
And birds the echoes of our love shall sing — 
And we, of faith shall sip the dower. 



[12] 



OUR WORLD A BOUNDLESS PLACE 

You have made life's transiency enough — 

Teacher in sorrow, comrade in joy. 

You have given me faith of fairest stuff, 

Which Earth may yet employ. 

You have brought those dim horizons close to eye 

The end of longing your embrace. 

No shudder ours as time goes by — 

Our world a boundless place. 



[13] 



WE WALK, MY LOVE AND I 

We walk in silence by the moving sea 
Communing with the waters of our love, 
The breakers sport and toss their spray above- 
She is the sun of all the hours to me . . . 

What poetry could engender 
Your ardor-brimming eyes 
Oh how could ties less slender 
Debar from Paradise! 



[14] 



LIFE SHALL BE VICTORY 

Let us join hands, O spirit of my yearning, 
That we may rest unmindful of the sea 
Which surges, tumbhng breakers sighing, 
Along the margin of a nether lea. 

Lute of my laughter, we can conquer. 
For we have Beauty by our side. 
And youth has boundless years to wander 
In vales away from time and tide. 

Ever the moonlight on fair meadows 
Shall evoke the voice of song, 
And free from the tether of fancied shadows 
Life shall be victory, perfect and long. 



[IS] 



SUFFICIENCY 

I look at the flowery woodland — 
Again at the summer sea — 
But I want no earthly kingdom : 
Only the love of thee. 

The world may roll its thunder 
With patent-made machine, 
And toss its toys assunder — 
We need no tinsel screen. 



[16] 



THROUGH ENDLESS EONS . . . 

Still comes the Spring to wake new minstrelsy, 
And storm and sunshine crowd the trooping years; 
Still men are born to weep and laugh, and pass 
On to the vision of fresh images; 
Still death renews the coals of quenchless hearths, 
And concord, strength and beauty grow the more. 

Just so, our love shall grasp the proffered hand 
Of time which harbors perfect things — 
Through endless eons, indestructible, 
Shall dwell where stars begin. 



[17] 



UNTIL YOU CAME 

Until you came I drank but could not taste 

The breeze of Summer only brought a sigh; 

In vain my soul would conjure clouds on high, 

The mud of Earth would claim them back in haste 

From golden realms for my poor heart too chaste. 

And all the numbers that I counted by 

Turned false, and all my labor stood a lie. 

My potent heritage a hopeless waste. 

But in the aimless matter you breathed form 

And freed my soul from its constricting cage, 

To try new life in regions ever warm. 

Your love calmed Nature in her scornful rage 

And saved the hope of youth from quenching storm; 

Now, barren years are gone — we turn the page. 



i8] 



THE RIVER OF PEACE 

When the banks of the river are green, 
O'er the frolicking azure between — 
Lilly-bespangled with sheen — 
Forever together we'll float. 

We will echo the tune in the heart 
That beauties of Nature impart; 
Although blossoms may wilt and depart 
Our Summer sha'n't falter nor wane. 

Let these bright colors instill 
In our lives what their death cannot kill, 
While the shimmering wavelets shall thrill 
Us, and image sidereal bights. 

O wherefore the wine and the books 
Or solace of solitude's nooks. 
When love like the purposive brooks 
Can lead to the River of Peace ! 



[19] 



IN SACRED KEEPING 

Breakers of sorrow beating 
Upon a desolate shore — 
Thither the tide was drifting 
In barren years before: 
Until your hand with guiding, 
To deep smooth waters bore 
My life, in sacred keeping, 
Of your love, evermore. 



[20] 



NO GALE OUR HARMONY SHALL MAR 

In crowned stillnesses above the flight 
Of little things embroiled in night, 
Free from the sepulchres of aimless men 
Survivors of the tumult, we can breathe again. 
Fair Spirit whose entrancing charm has wrought 
This miracle that wine from water brought — 
Love doth unseat all furies by his might, 
The land of hunger shivers from the sight. 
The garden which your presence sets me 'round 
Can catch the echoes of no profane sound; 
So ever, though winds hurl distress afar, 
No gale our harmony shall mar. 



[21] 



SAILING 

Fairwell known lands, the sail is set, 
My bark is trained and trim — 
And love shall take the tiller yet 
Beyond the ocean's rim. 

Then we'll keep sailing, sailing, 
Beyond the world of ailing — 
For love must move its strength to prove. 
By sailing, sailing, sailing. 



[22] 



OUR LOVE IS VINDICATED 

Liberty lends no stronger wing 

Than this : the freedom to know You — 

You Dear, who are to me 

A Phantom germinal that clears 

The webbed and manifold design of life. 

You who have made a synthesis of Earth and sky, 

That I may reckon with entirety: 

Lest love of man and woman be my scorn — 

As sullied Nature only — 

Because I pass the link of ties invisible. 

Our love is vindicated — all of it: 

It sh^ll not miss its stars. 



[23] 



THOUGH YOU WALK NOT HERE 

Though Earth's last zephyr has stroked your golden 

hair 
And lingered joyfully to touch your cheek, 
There shall be other breezes yet 
That reach no mortal sail. 

Though Death has closed the eyes with youth so clear 
That merry sunbeams used to caper in, 
Yet shall they ope' on fairer fields 
Where there is sweeter laughter. 

You had outgrown this little circle here — 
Had seen more stars than mortals were allowed 
And won the right to leave the stage. 
So Death has moved the bars. 



[24] 



WHEN THOU ART GONE 

Crumbling are the pillars that support my vernal 

sphere, 
Soon the trumpeter of strife shall bid his cohorts 

wake ; 
And the peace and majesty of sun and marble 
Shall alter to an ill-formed, evil thing. 
Dear One, when thou art gone there is 
On Earth for me no friendliness or beauty — 
For Innocence shall wield a harpy sword, 
And even the sea's great sobbing sympathy 
Shall seem to mock my loneliness. 



[25] 



PARTED 

And now we are parted who knew no joy- 
Save in the union of our love. 
Which laid a carpet for our feet 
To tread clean ways in unison. 
What transient cobweb what enduring wall 
Could check the ardor of our glowing noon ; 
What strident clarion of strife 
Could aught inveigle us to leave our sphere. 
Those were the hours when basest stone 
Reflected diamond gleamings to our eyes, 
And the host of voices mingled in one song 
That made their firmament embrace our peace 
But now this triumph is to take its place 
Among the wrecks of other argosies. 
And I must join my sobbing with the rest 
The crippled million in the lightening's wake. 
My tears of anguish o'er the bier of hope 
Move not the stricken stillness of the tomb ; 
And Mockery, deriding, plants a flower 
Atop the quicksands for another lover. 



[26] 



BOOK TWO 

Gifts of the Magi 

'Look to the blowing rose about us. 



VENICE AT NIGHT 

Stately minions of Romance 
Whispered music in mine ear; 
Fancy's Fairies skipped in dance 
On sky-adoring wavelets clear. 

Beck'ning mysteries swelled the dark 
Where waters kissed the age-worn stone, 
And every ripple held a spark 
Of fire from the lunar zone. 

I strained to meet that sweet caress 
Which everything enjoined to give; 
The sky and Earth did coalesce — 
I knew the life that Spirits hve. 

Sprightly laughter filled the air 
Peace came, golden morrows shone — 
Venice conjured from their lair 
Lotus-bearers for my throne. 



[39] 



MAN AND SEASONS 

How we rejoice to romp with Summertime, 
Then Body is the sum of all our being. 

On a Winter evening we sit brooding, 
Threading with mind a reasoned labyrinth. 

How different are these mortals of the Seasons 
Who shun and yet in turn acclaim 
The fields of Earth, the fields of mind ! 



[30] 



OF FRIENDS 

Close friends — our second selves. 
Whose sweet communion 
Redresses our own faults 
In sympathy and union; 

This frankest joy to know, 
That every day we live 
We do not stand alone, 
Are privileged to give. 



[31] 



MY FAIRYLAND 

I lay amidst the summer grass and sent 

My youthful Fancy out to play, 

With a multitude of singing Shapes I spied 

Dancing in rythm to my mood, 

In a far valley I had always sought. 

But Nature was wroth, and bid me look 

How she had builded for my joy; 

So I stroked the flowers and pressed my face against 

the grass — 
Loving the youth of all I saw, but still, 
My heart was in the meadows yet unfound. 

I could not rest and say, "It is enough — 
This is the peace my Fancy whispered of." 
The beauty that I knew could only add 
To a rapt yearning for the final form 
Of all of goodness, in my fairyland. 



[32] 



THE SCRIPTURE OF SUMMER 

Hours alone in summer fields — 
Sweet ministering touch of solitude, 
When garish pomp to Nature yields 
And far-off clouds evoke my mood. 

Then time is ripe to measure life 
Away from cellars of iniquity — 
Here in the fields response is rife 
That Good ordains there ought to be. 

The wisdom of the ages lies 
Enscriptured under summer skies- — 
Go drink of Nature's certain cure 
For vision-motes that make you poor. 



[33] 



WHAT BOUNTY GAIN . . . 

How great the profit when with open soul, 
We wait on Nature's teaching by the bank 
Of some fair stream in Summer decked. 

Never as then are we so sure 
What bounty gain concordant hearts, 
That love has fortressed well with faith. 

The laws which order subjects into line 
Constrain to no mean part the willing man — 
Safe from the bondage of disharmony — 
Who builds his image where the sun will shine. 



[34] 



OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS 

Things of a day, you tell me, 

Yes Time is cruel to his handicraft — 

The builder is the red destroyer too. 

But only of the flesh of it, ne'r of the soul of it. 

The light but takes on other color. 

For the good of the old is the Hfe of the new. 

Beauty remaineth forever, proof against wearing years. 

Each rose is one of many and though it fade from sight 

Will live again in other form — 

The truth of it the joy of it — 

For there is no death of lovliness, 

External things are above a single form. 

Beauty, thou beacon of this storm-tossed life 

In thee our Spring shall ever bloom. 



[35] 



OXFORD 

Oxford, beautiful in form and soul, 
Gothic ecstacy and spiritual bowl — 
Well do'st thou lead the eager hand of youth 
To where the palace is of radiant Truth. 
Thou fair enchantress of the languid mind, 
Goad of the eager, urging e'er behind — 
Well moldest thou to potency the clay 
That slowly moves the barrier away. 



[36] 



AT THE SWIMMING-HOLE 

Tell me, who revel in the waters cool 
Of this fair woodland's charmed pool — 
Is this the fabled spring of old 
Sought that men might evade the mould? 

How well does Nature court your smiles 

Which every element beguiles — 

Never was Freedom's self so free 

As the lads that dive from this willow tree. 

Your naked beauty links you in a bond 
With all that is and hopes beyond — 
The trees take up your laugh, and I 
No longer vindicate a sigh . . . 

Yet why must nature enervate with years 
What once was so unscarred by tears; 
Is it best that knowledge wound and grow 
When the end of wisdom these swimmers know ? 

Yes, we must traverse Hell to keep 
The faith of children wrapped in sleep. 



[37] 



SPRINGTIME MELODY 

Come joyful heart, the sun is up 
The kindred pulse of Spring, 
Calls forth her Youth to revelry — 
Lift up your voice and sing! 

Dance and love and frolick well, 
The Springtide does not barter 
Any of her golden charms 
To men who discount laughter. 

Grasp the hand she tenders you 
And join the merry throng 
That emulates the sportive breeze 
Which moves the clouds along. 

The dust of sorrow ne'er shall rise 
While Springtime woos the Earth; 
Faster, faster, drink the health 
Of each new morning's birth. 

Tomorrow is beyond the wave 
And out of sight and worry — 
Today, resplendent, cries to all, 
''Be merry, oh be merry!" 

[38] 



ART 

Out of the treasure-house of mind 
Art builds an idol for mankind — 
Gathering poppies from arctic ice 
That hope and love may yet suffice 
To choke the monster Fear. 

Ministers of chaste white Truth, 
Ignorance is the wounding tooth. 
Tenderest pages of Beauty clear 
Work that the far may be the near- 
Art is sorrow because it is love. 



[39] 



MAGDALEN TOWER AT OXFORD 

O Magdalen Tower, each time I look 

Upon thy beauty-radiant face, 

Thou seem'st more perfect in thy grace 

All sordid visions to erase; 

Thou art indeed a sculptured book — 

How few these pertect things of life 
That call the soul and check the strife ! 



[40] 



SONG IN THE SUNSHINE 

Drowsily, drowsily I lie 
Enfolded by the Summer grass, and lo, 
Forget the keynote of my train of woe — 
The memory of a sigh. 

Some necromancy bids me see: 
Ships in the harbor 
Firelight at home, 
A rose in the hand of a child; 
On billows wild the fair clear light 
Of the sun at eventide — 
Images athwart the moon, 
That Fancy's fairies ride. 

Drowsily, happily I lie, 

And sing with the glad glad breeze. 



[41] 



BELLS 

Oxford chimes that flow and swell 
In the sullen Winter days — 
Blithesome voices from each bell 
Stilling dirges sadness plays. 

Merry, frolic kindred notes 
When the Springtide nods in tune, 
Emissary kindness floats 
Meting life a double boon. 

Each of us has inner chimes 
Answering to the echoed calls — 
Earth to Heaven fitting rhymes 
Which shall build and crumble walls. 



[42] 



SCIENCE IS NOT ALL 

Whene'er the city's harsh array 
Becomes a penthouse for my peace, 
I pack my cares and go away 
To take the country's lease. 

Gentle Spirits meet me in the woods — 
With rythmic notes adore 
The glory great of Nature's goods, 
And my soul wants nothing more. 

Then I consider the two estates — 
The fields and the storm-wracked town; 
How we always pass the smile that waits, 
To barter blue for brown. 

Still "Progress" builds an ornate dome 
And sells new dross for tears, 
And time yet finds us far from home 
In the vale of fruitless years. 



143] 



THE STATUE 

I looked upon the statue with its calm farseeing eyes 
Perfect in its form, transcending mortal ties; 
Profaned it seemed amidst the viciousness of men — 
I looked to see it melt away into its skies again ; 
I wished to cry and laugh aloud, alike in joy and 

sorrow — 
A pain of longing and regret my soul began to harrow ; 
Why cannot our lives here below know such serene 

perfection, 
Spirit of lovliness divine, above all time's direction! 
I saw the nobleman of dreams, man his greater self, 
Stand forth on hights of vernal love purged of wish 

for pelf; 
Beauty, Justice, Truth, arrayed stood there before me 
And I trembled in the presence of an awful majesty, 
And turned away in humbleness as from a thing too 

holy. 
Came some great new fact of Nature, vested bright 

in glory, 
A flash of vision quick to leave the fingertips of mind — 
Just as the sun rose up with light my mortal sight 

went blind. 
But I felt the sky was nearer and the grass was greener 

too 
And inner voices whispered of a good I never knew. 

[44] 



ON SEEING THE RUINS OF THE FORUM 

Thou too hast seen thy tidal-wave — 

Only in memory, alas, 

Shall thy greatness reach eternity; 

O Rome that was beautiful and strong, 

Thy marble knows the sacrilege — 

O man why must thou climb only to fall 

Breaking the image won by toil. 

How little is all glory if this must be the end — 

Cities like men, with numbered days. 

Till the gods frown and cry, "Enough." 

Someday we yet may build so well 

We shall be proof against our own destroying hand. 

O Rome, may all who see thee read thy sign 

And help to found the tower that shall not fall ! 



[45] 



BEAUTY 

Sweet evanescent voices of that eternal lyre 

Which Beauty lends to craven Earth to extirpate the 

mire — 
No note like thine can raise the head that weariness 

has bent 
And wake the soul to seek the goal for which our days 

are lent. 
The satin equipage of Pomp can hold the spellbound 

eye 
Till thine empuring strains unmask these spectres 

that belie. 
A voice in voiceless wilderness, a light in lightless night 
The shrine of all our imagery the touchstone of our 

sight. 
The harp of human virtue reechoes Beauty's chord 
And straying feet regain the road that leads to Folly's 

ford. 
The banner of the Ages that were and are to be 
Unfolds its glory in a breeze that comes alone from 

thee. 
Each purple gown of triumph true was wove' in 

Beauty's mill, 
And every flower that leaves the mould in Her name 

quotes the Will. 

[46] 



THE STREET 

The street was dimly-lighted, dirty, drear, 

A bit of Earth forsaken by the touch 

Of all which makes for happiness and love. 

The people there were abject as its stones. 

Youth never tuned those listless feet 

No eyes invoked a promise from the stars — 

The riven pavement long had held their shrines. 

The palaced hill where Laughter lived, looked down 

And spurned the squalor and the seamed brows. 

And then, as sunlight breaking on a clouded day 
There passed in all the tatters of ill-destiny, 
A maid whom Beauty wrought and cast 
To be a lamp within the wilderness — 
A radiance Nature gave for tears . . . 

Ye are not wasted, ye few young who live 
Within a house of bondage so devised. 
For ye shall nurse the pinions of the Strong 
With visions of a mountain paradise — 
And Some shall see and love and win. 



[47] 



IN YOUTH'S BIG DAYS 

In youth's big days of fiery unrest 
Come spirit-tappings of a crowding soul, 
Demanding place within the mortal breast 
That life may know the fullness of its role. 

In after times to keep inviolate 

The strength and wonder of those jewelled days, 

We turn to Beauty in her high estate — 

And Youth comes dancing back again and stays. 

Who loves young things forever young may be — 
Each mind constructs its own eternity. 



[48] 



SPRING OPTIMISM 

Spring, sweet opiate of all our pains 

Whereby we reason life in many gains; 

This Beauty's triumph over cold and dark 

Attunes expectant souls to hark 

To the far music of a siren choir, 

As fresh young buds to broader life aspire; 

All Earth pours forth a madrigal of joy 

And the heart of sobered man is that of a carefree boy. 

Youth of the Springtide, the unfailing cure 

That makes the faltering grip secure, 

Fitting the stones and bending the bow 

That we labor in love as we onward go — 

Knowing no sign for today of sorrow 

Strong by the promise of bright tomorrow. 



[49] 



TO A CERTAIN SCULPTOR 

Prophet-handed Artist dear. 
You caught the Spirit free 

Which danced hearts to conquest there 
Upon the moonUt sea. 

Knit are the fibers of my soul 
Before with doubt unmeshed; 

Perish every prowUng ghoul — 
A knowing heart is blessed! 

Artist, you have wrought full well 

My ship of Hfe to clear; 
Your work has made the music swell 

I've spent my days to hear. 



[50] 



IN SUMMER 

How well does Nature's pulse become our own 
When hearing Beauty's breezeborne call, 
We muse alone in valleys summer-blown 
And catch the rythm that pervades it all. 

Forgotten hopes the mood recalls to life, 
And living seems so big and full of songs 
We wonder why the past has been so rife 
With doubts and discords of imagined wrongs. 

This outward joy becomes our inner guest 

As breeze and trees besport in ecstasy, 

By mere existence infinitely blessed — 

And something says, "You man are also free.'* 



[SI] 



THE IMPROVISER 

Lovingly his fingers wrought 
A magic call upon the soul, 
Opening doorways of the mind 
Into dim all-holy spaces — 
Giving sight beyond the pale 
Of fretful little tribulations. 

No longer saw I keys and player — 
Only a Beauty hovering near, 
Offering peace and happiness 
In youth forever after. 

I heard the sob of Crushed and Worn 
Changing to laughter pure and free. 

The strength of mountains filled my bosom 
And much-enduring sympathy; 
A something clothed in perfect form 
Smoothed all the fears of my soul away; 
And I crossed by the ray of the music's light 
Over the torrent of lesser things 
Into the meadows of Heart's-Desire, 
Where truth is measured by eternity. 



[52] 



HARVARD 

Thy name is ever first to thrill 
Whose guiding hand is strongest still, 
Who gave me the undying thirst 
The bonds of my own soul to burst. 
Tenderest of noble nurses, 
Too beautiful to gloss with lies — 
How honestly you set the wares of life 
And questioned peace as well as strife! 



[S3] 



THE RECRUIT 

The World laughs with us when we're young 

And takes us to her breast, 

A fair wind strikes the sail we raise 

As we seek our golden West. 

'Tis merry merry, all a song 
The pride of strength have we, 
And rather scorn the plodding ones 
That start with bended knee. 

But the world goes on without our aid 
And we win no golden crown; 
We fill some little unseen nitch — 
Then the world begins to frown! 

Oh noble youth of castled hopes. 
The valley too has gold — 
Strive on, whatever be thy place. 
Crowns are not cheaply sold. 



[54] 



AUTUMN REVERIE 

Another year has gathered back her gifts 
Of lavish splendor set in perfect days; 
But Summer lingers like a cloud that drifts- 
Ordered by unseen hands in unknown ways. 

And with these last caresses of the year, 
Man sees how full a garrison of joy 
Nature has stored against dim fear — 
Her myriad cares his love to cloy. 

If we take Earth the beautiful, in hand, 
We cannot fail to keep great hope; 
We cannot wander from a loving land — 
With open eyes we cannot grope. 



[5S] 



BECAUSE OF THE BEAUTY 

I've seen the Spring's young glory 
And heard dim distance call, 
And sadly read the story 
Of the golden dying Fall. 

And I've watched the eager youngsters 
In their joyful hoHday, 
And the time-besoftened elders 
With their visions far away. 

And I've loved all this about me 
And worked to fit my stone, 
Just because I worshipped Beauty 
In the fields my hands had sown. 



[56] 



BOOKS 

The throb of other hearts, 
The depth of other souls 
You oiler for our joy — 
O matchless treasures, books. 
To fuller, broader sight 
You reconcile, inspire — 
And nurture all who come 
To bonds of brotherhood 
With kinship's sympathy — 
Sweet balm for men of Earth. 



[57] 



BOOK THREE 

Jugglers of Values 
'Whatever is good is also beautiful. 



THE BRAVE 

The tabernacles of the Brave are far; 
They crown the hills of progress and the way 
Unto the sanctuary, clean and fair. 
Is won with sobbing and by aching feet — 
Of men who heeded one sweet song 
That Summer brought from far away. 
They mingled all their sorrows in a love 
Which whispered : "Lo, I am enough." 



[6i] 



BEAUTY 

Beauty, you stir the heart-springs stagnated, 
From outlet stopped, with small cares surfeited. 

You strand my mind on wondrous hights 
Bewildering in majesty — 
Untrammelled seeks my soul the lights 
That but for thee it could not see. 

Beauty, you are the means, the end, the all 
By which we temper lesser things that pall. 



[62] 



LOYALTY 

'Tis loyalty that builds the palaces 
Which stand predominant above the years; 
Loyalty that cherishes one star 
With love which has a scorn for tears. 

Wherever shine immortal monuments 
Of deeds that looked beyond their day, 
Men who have kept their chosen banner up 
In loyalty have wrought the clay. 

No word rings with a sweeter sound 
Than this, whose rood Earth glories by — 
It is the garment manifest of Truth 
In which enrobed, we subjugate the lie. 



[631 



ANCHORAGE 

Nature can count us with the streams and flowers- 

We must in substance follow her caprice 

And suffer limits that her laws may set. 

So we indeed must voice unanswered cries 

Unto a calm inexorable mein — 

A law unto itself and us the part. 

But happily not all of us is clod 

And we can loose the circuit of our bonds, 

And fly in spirit to unearthly fields 

To glean therefrom the leaven for our bread. 



[64] 



YESTERDAYS 

Bright was the sun of yesteryear 
And all the hours were May; 
Each kindly moment swelled the cheer 
That kept the dark away. 

Alas, no sun which lights our Earth 
Can save its rays for long — 
Full soon must come a springless dearth, 
And a dirge becomes the song. 

O moments dead, of happiness, 
That the wind has swept apart — 
Though fickle was your soft caress 
Your progeny still tune my heart! 

Caches of plenty in a famine-land 
Where we pause to watch the stars. 
And grasp dear Hope's creative hand — 
Then the rainbow's not so far. 

Sometime, each yesterday of joy, 
Returns ghostlike to kiss 
In transient ecstacy its toy — 
The heart that once knew bliss. 

Sweet yesterdays shall ever be 
The future's pact of fealty. 

[65] 



IN NOCTE LUMEN 

The painted china of our cherished dreams 

We strive to guard with futile means; 

The agonies of ages past 

Are still our own sobs, first and last; 

Time desecrates the fairest things 

And stunts the spirit's starting wings. 

Peace has no homestead in this land of men, 

But Love, his deputy, renews hope's coals again. 



[66] 



YOUTH INVINCIBLE 

Unto the breaking of another day 
Bearing the roses we have gleaned, 
Triumphant in vain faith and ardent-eyed, 
We hold the sceptre of the gods in hand. 
Leaping to each new conquest even as 
Through all the ages Youth has done. 
We make all glory to recur 
And turn each sunset to a fairer dawn. 



[67] 



TILL HE HAS WORSHIPPED . . . 

Must we the Nomad's solace seek 

To flee the irony of fears, 

Which bid us fold our fragile tent of peace 

Nor wait to nurse the seedlings of our toil? 

Youth brooks no stately highway for his foot 

To tread in rythm with the Throng, 

But seeks to hew through the uncharted wildernes* 

A path of many changes to his goal. 

Ah yes, we scorn to cull the jaded flowers, 
This fear lives in the lifeblood of our love; 
It is not meet that youth should don a cowl 
Till he has worshipped well his kindly Gods. 



[68] 



TRUTH 

Semper eadem, white-mantled Truth 
Ever so old yet ever in youth; 
Palliative to our aching breast. 
Although unseen, our fetish blest. 
Sick pessimism dragging victims down 
Shall change his nature at thy frown; 
So manifest are thine extensions seen 
That all the leaves of Earth are green ; 
The name, the soul of every virtue bright- 
The only god in his own right. 



[69] 



WHICH THINGS ARE GOOD? 

So many blessings of this life 
That find us unawares, 

Have tabernacles often rife 
With sight-bewitching tares ! 



[70] 



MIND AND BODY 

Body exists for the mind, 
Mind is akin to the soul; 
Mind in extension reaches its goal, 
Leaves the clay body behind. 

Mind is unbounded and free 
Body is flesh that decays; 
Man and his vehicle we see — 
Mind that in soiled clothing plays. 



[71] 



FAME AND THE BUILDER 

Man leaves off the minstrelsy 
Of far, forgotten shores, 
That once saw perpetuity 
Through splendor's open doors. 

Dried is the blood of cities 
Time checks from her slate ; 
And of our own dear beauties 
Someday none shall narrate. 

Each wind that favors progress 
Sows also death and shame — 
The graves are lying countless 
Of favorites of Fame. 

And when the cry, "To fray" 
Shall strike your eager ear, 
Be not the one to say, 
*T shall the world unsphere." 



[73] 



HOPE 

Ever the billion voices 
Of sorrowing uncrowned ones, 
Shriek and implore the darkness 
As the river of hope yet runs. 

O Goddess in shining raiment 
Smiling that all may endure — 
Thy vows are not written on parchment 
Nor the truth of thy promises sure. 

But man in grasping terror 
Has only these to trust, 
And though he feels the error 
Would think that all is just. 

How little we hope for is won 

Yet burnish we the lamp — 

Failure starts as life's begun 

But hope outlives all cold and damp. 



t73] 



INCONSTANT HALOES 

Have these Penates I long cherished here 
Beside my hearth as harbingers of cheer, 
Have they become but shattered fripperies 
And shadow-picures for a moment's ease! 

Alas how ev'ry idol onetime warm, 
Becomes a blemished monster in deform; 
And by the excitation of a day 
The garnered fruits of years decay. 

Each love-wrought edifice shall know the hand 
Of realization chill that claims its land. 
Profane it seems, this impious rupturing — 
Experience takes tribute for her teaching. 

But though we mourn our misdirected faith 
We should not court a futile wraith, 
Nor cherish counterfeits however sweet 
To furnish us a shamed retreat. 

When haloes we endowed have passed along, 
Truth at least's not victim of a song. 



[74] 



WAVES OF THE SEA 

Fear, hunger, death. 
These are the Httle things — 
Waves that fret the bosom-calm 
Of an unchanging sea. 

Purpose, labor, love. 

These are the substance of great things- 

Of tides that move the waters 

In accordance with the Will. 

These immemorial currents 
Of passion and hatred and pride, 
Conceal by surface foamings 
The beauty that waits within. 

Mind is the only purveyor 
To the peace beneath the waves 
Where spirit and matter are wedded 
To further the organized plan. 



[75] 



THE FAIRY OF THE LOVE-OF-LIFE 

With the touch of fairy fingers 
You caress away my pain; 
With the tune of cloudbome singers 
You awake the Love again. 

How in this valley straying 
Could courage pull the van 
Of all our cares and doubting, 
Without beauty in the plan? 

Oh many, many a chilling breast 
The fire of beauty quickens, 
All man has worked the very best 
Was at this fairy's summons. 

Merrily laugh the 'powered young 
When a fair sun smiles above, 
Happy the old lips which have sung : 
In one name only, we know the Love. 



(76] 



RESOLVE! 

The fleeting moments of a happy day 
With friendship's joy to burnish April sun — 
How dear are these rare hours that sweep away 
The cankered worries with the future spun! 

But such times are but seldom in our score, 
The offerings of wine to thirsty hearts. 
That strength may be to wrestle yet some more 
And face the hungers each new morning starts. 

And yet though they are bubbles on the wave — 
These respite-moments which the seas must claim- 
No bit of beauty knows a darkened grave, 
Where joy and pain become the same. 

Let us not weep to an unheeding fate 
But strive the bulwarks of our faith to plant 
So deep that clutching pain will come too late. 
And find a tempered will of adamant. 

The grain awaits the harvest, ever old 

And Reapers work in thunder but glean gold. 



177] 



DAYDREAMS 

Oh the shining far-flung glory 
Of our tender homemade clouds, 
Traversing a friendly vastness 
To the still frontier of shrouds: 
Though they tarry but a moment 
In the treetops of the mind, 
Yet the heart is wealthy by them 
In the ray they leave behind. 



[78] 



THE TWO ROADS 

The soul that in the calling void 

Some hand of kinship grasps, 
Descends to us with earth alloyed 

With heaven makes our hasps. 

Let not mad rush for leaden spoil 

Bedim our eyes to stone, 
That martyred mind shall fail in toil 

To bear its sceptre home. 

The heart which meets the far stars' ray 

A super vision knows 
That makes a warmth on mounts to play 

And melts away the snows. 

We need not bide the Mobe hut — 

Each owns a palace too. 
When Satyrs pipe its touchstone door to shut, 

Oh men, first look ye through ! 



C79] 



CHARACTERS 

Four men stood under heaven's dome 
And each spoke out his view of home: 

Said one, "All things are well and life is good;" 
Another cursed the ground whereon he stood; 
The Third. "Truth said the first and last as well;' 
A weary-looking one, "We cannot tell" — 

"O attitude!" I cried, and went my way, 
With many-patterned thoughts at play. 



[80] 



FIGHT ON! 

I have cast the false gods from me 
Slain the sorcerer Unrest, 
Surfeited with wells of folly — 
Fashion's blazonry unblest. 

Gone the bleached and bloodless falsehood 
Of veneering truth with baubles — 
Pageantry against the Good, 
Building houses for our troubles. 

Life's no monograph of woe 
If we hew the thicket road 
And hasten lest we be too slow, 
And diffidence the will corrode. 

The melody of fruitful lives 
Nor ease nor trembling makes — 
In sweating conflict ever strives 
Who clears his path of snakes. 



[8i] 



I AM THE TRUTH WHO KNOWS 

I am the truth who knows 
Wherefore the westwind blows— 
I shall unfold the story 
To those who seek me. 

I dwell not in the ken 
Of wayward mortal men — 
Let none forsake again 
What I would offer. 

The vision through my eyes 
Is the only paradise 
That never fades or dies. 
That has no Winter. 

My followers must be 
In very form like me — 
And they shall bend the knee 
To my voice only. 

Mine is the longest road, 
Mine the heaviest load. 
Yet mighty is the goad 
That bids men follow. 

Your houses built of clay 
The wind shall sweep away; 
My roof is your salvation, 
The final destination. 
[82] 



THE MODE 

You who have sobbed your sorrows to the breeze at 

dusk, 
You who have laughed in joy with the renascent mom, 
You who have known the kiss that love can give — 
Why can you never say of life, "Enough" ? 

Ever the thirst insatiate, also to all men high and low, 
Alike whom wine has warmed or lash has cut, 
They who condemn the Weak and they who supplicate 

the Strong — 
See the far islands of the better things. 

O men, as years pass into the beyond 
Your whole lives' doing shall be founded on a creed : 
You shall be happy in today's forgetfulness and faith. 
Making the first goal life — this is the only way. 



[83] 



FAILURES 

Come with the wind of ill weather, 
Gloomy and threadbare and stark 
Rustling ghouls of endeavor, 
Of men who struck wide of their mark. 

I know that these failures must tally 
Over the span of the years. 
With surplus that others shall rally 
Through an effusion of tears. 

Men who defer their own burdea 
Suffer the truth to a few, 
Make all the panoply weaken 
For millennial peace to ensue. 



[84] 



DESPAIR 

See, misfortune's cunning webs 
That wait with evil snare, 
To seize when courage ebbs, 
New slaves for king Despair! 

His minions know no rest 
His court abides the tomb; 
He sears the eyes of his unblest 
Forever from the Bloom. 



[8s] 



THE TWISTED SKEIN 

Life comes to us a twisted skein 
Our duty to untwine again — 
And in the doing plan with care 
Lest threads be broke beyond repair. 



[86] 



REDEMPTION 

We men are made for many functionings. 

The universal plan from many things 

(Which each is set to definite account , 

By the Prime-mover on his reflective mount) 

In devious and untold ways moves on ; 

And day by day these finite things are won 

From fluxing temporality of Earth, 

To participate in everlasting birth — 

When perfect things can join the sphere of light 

And share the absolute, in truth bedight. 

So each small ediface of hand and brain 
In part accomplishes the final gain — 
That junction with the infinite regime — 
Which shall for man the pains of life redeem. 



[87] 



HAPPINESS 

Fairest and dearest of visions, happiness, 

First in the hearts of all who breathe on Earth — 

Object and end of every plan and deed 

Alike to wastrel and to builder too ; 

Fleeting, ephemeral, indefinite yet ever visible. 

Sought in the slough of sin and in the voice of fame 

Since the first sunrise of every heart's desire ! 

And who, alas, has plucked this filmy star 

Out of the blackness of his searching-ground: 

Some win the blessed radiance of proximity 

But ever and forever comes the sigh, 

"I found thy mansion but thou had'st moved on." 

Alas, so ever changes she her biding place, 

A treasure-bird scarce seen but on the wing again. 

And so there lives the everlasting quest 

Of this strange consort of the truth and beauty 

Above the limits of our understanding. 

Thus we go down in death still seeking 

What we have always sought — an island in the flood. 



[88] 



TILL ONE STONE . . . 

You need seek no other setting 

For your city of the light 

Than the land on which you're standing, 

Which is your own by right. 

No eldorado gleaming 
Shall greet your straining sight, 
Till one stone by your setting 
In this city is laid tight. 



[89] 



LOVE, WILL AND SIGHT 

Love is the plant and Will the flower 
Whose fragrance sanctifies a bower, 
Where every man can look and see 
What he the power has to be. 

Many stars each day descend 
Because of some Will's lofty trend; 
What perseverance yet has sought 
No tempest fierce has hindered aught. 

Withered rosebuds strew the ground 
Where Weariness the spoiler's found — 
Loveless vision has tender hands 
That will not fashion hope's demands. 



[90] 



BUT WE ARE WINNING 

With the sea of man's desire so extensive 
And land above its bosom so diminutive, 
No wonder that some oft — distraught with question- 
ing- 
Discount the land there is, where living, 
Each day exacts new secrets full of gold 
Which spread the limits of our fair stronghold. 

Yes, bitter are the waves and bent on rending. 
But we are dredging ever: building, winning. 



[91] 



IN VALLEYS CRISCROSSED 

O set me in a wilderness away 

From valleys criscrossed by the tracks of men — 

Scarred with weary aimless toil, 

Broken in beauty, shadowed by fear. 

Alone with the unpretentious trees 

Where the cleanest altars of new hope are set; 

High on the headlands where my view is long 

And I may measure by a certain scale. 

Futile and rythmless this life 

Were I to shun these moments with my soul, 

Without a care to test the course I take — 

If I reduce my moves to habitude 

And stumble through a myriad of hours. 

Without matching past and future plays 

In the arena crowded with my kind. 

It is so easy, merely to laugh and weep and fade! 



[92] 



I WOULD NOT SLEEP 

To sleep is coward's rest: 

Man's sacrament is in a life of pain 

Flecked with strange duties, ceasless fires 

That wound, but wounding give new strength again. 

We can't transgress this first of laws in peace — 

But must ourselves sift out the dross. 

And learn to laugh with hunger at the door. 



[93] 



BOOK FOUR 

Beyond the Harvest 

"The most glorious fact in our experience is not any- 
thing that we have done or may hope to do, but a 
transient thought, or vision, or dream, which we have 
had." 



WE SEEK REUNION 

We seek reunion, ever consciously, 
With part of us which seems to be afar — 
That part of us most Uke a happy star — 
Which knows the beauty of infinity. 

Sporadic messages endow our Hves — 
Each one of us a guided sateUite 
Who does Earth's work, but owes his might 
To a distant call whereby he strives. 



[97] 



BEYOND THE BORDERLAND 

When the long tryst with Fate is over 
And Earth takes back her shroud again, 
Souls shall be free to roam together 
Where jewelled beauties never wane. 

Youthful the feet that tread those meadowi 
Where the eternal flowers bloom; 
And there shall be no evil shadows 
That singing Harmony consume. 

Nor shall there be the frenzied worship 
Of eyes downtumed to changing seams — 
Cleansed by truth shall be the slaveship 
Past the borderland of dreams . . . 

Surely such must be — is not Fancy 
Some bird divine from worlds apart, 
Singer of real true glories waiting 
In mercy to the earthbound heart? 



[98] 



VISTAS 

Fair vistas that we sometimes see — 
When music stirs or soft winds sigh — 
Into a garden-land of flowers 
Where all the lean and harsh array 
Of things which hamper willing hands, 
Live transformed and swell the tune 
Of hearts that want no truant moon. 

Then we go out, when we have glimpsed 
This sun on untrod fields, 
And wondrous vigor, young and new, 
Enheartens us to wake and see 
What course of life can set us free. 



[99] 



ETERNAL SORROW 

Our joys are many, and their colors bright 
Build gleaming rainbows in a friendly sky; 
And love comes down from summits far and clear- 
Then lo, the cup of life is brimming full. 
But when the smile is freest on our lips 
How surely shall the chilly wind arise, 
How surely shall the happiest of feet 
Stumble to where in greed and sloth. 
Eternal Sorrow waits their turn to come ! 



[100] 



TREES AND MEN 

Treetops as men, reach tip to touch the sky, 

And know a pure and perfumed air above ; 

But still the bonds with Earth are fast, 

And after growing all they may, 

Both trees and men through fated days 

In wistful silence beckon. 

To stars just out of reach. 



[loi] 



TO THE WESTWIND 

Storied wind of Even* tell my listening ear 

Tales of far-off places my wondering heart would 

hear; 
When you kissed green palmtrees 'side a summer sea, 
Skimming opal beaches, hovering o'er the lea; 
Tell me, find men peace there, over Western wave, 
Do they know, the pearl Content to save? 

Shriek not, hateful answer — right indeed I guessed: 
They too, knawed by yearning, seek another West. 



[102] 



LAMENT 

Sweet paragon that years subvert 
For cold imperfect things — 
This simple trust in elder Ones 
Which childhood's beauty sings. 

When men mature there is no faith 
Above all questioning, 
We cannot sleep the war is on 
The Bluebird takes to wing. 

We sight far-off Hesperides 
But steer a circling course; 
Never after childhood's week 
Touch we the gold we seek. 



[103] 



HORIZONS 

Ever the role of Tantalus we play. 

We who have eyes but sightless seek the day ; 

What profit if our feet tread rosy gold 

While hearts pine for a story yet untold; 

Oh stars that watch us from the shrouded hight 

Thy sun of day is but the mock of night — 

The finite seeks the infinite design 

But knowledge stagnates at an ordained line . . . 

Unkind horizons of the fettered mind 
Death is the only glory of the Blind. 



[104] 



FANTASY 

Ecstatic bending palmtrees 

Blue lagoons in southern seas, 

Waiting to sooth the Seeker 

With a golden opiate beaker, 

Who weary, wants a haven 

His pack of woes to lighten, 

In distant summer hemispheres 

Where strife has borne no tears . . . 

I see a land of constant sunshine 
Where the Good has gone to play. 
And the love for which our hearts pine 
Composes night and day. 



[los] 



A WISH 

As time spins out the thread of years, 
Who knows but through the rifted blue 
By the peepholes of the stars 
We may behold the Ever-New: 
Spirit of the yearned-for things 
Serene in fields where Beauty sings. 

Then back to Earth we'd turn content 
Knowing for what our bow is bent 
And whither the shaft of life is sent. 



[io6] 



TODAY IS ONE OF THE BRIGHT DAYS . . 

Today is one of the bright days 

When I am clasped and borne amain, 

By chords of music played on some far shore; 

They greet me with their sweetness of a mom 

And charm me till I am so free, 

That sun and flowers make up the total sphere 

Wherein for one whole day I move — 

Knowing the peace of which the breakers croon. 

Those long, unhurried ones bewitched by June. 

Many fretful hours it needs to breed these few. 
That catch the spirit fledged to fly 
For moments sweet, beyond the pale ! 



[107] 



FAITH 

Faith in the wisdom of the Spirit 
That placed the mountains by his plan- 
This is the end of all our doubting, 
The path in the wilderness of fears. 

Above this world of lesser monarchs 
There is a never-closing eye, 
That orders Spring to whisper comforts 
And stars of night to hint of dawn. 



[io8] 



UNHAPPY POWERS 

The fires within my soul 
Are only painful fires : 
Beauty is a torturer, 
With many-patterned means 
To slay incipient rapture, 
Surely, pulse on pulse. 
Seeing loving hoping — 
Such power is all enough 
To make me pile unwillingly 
A sorrow-mountain high, 
Which e'er shall keep from sight 
That dawn I live to meet. 



[109] 



THE DREAM 

As dreaming on my couch I lay 
Motley fantasies made play — 
Surefooted, threaded mind a maze 
Which wakeful logic ne'er could phrase. 

Hills and cities, lakes and men, 
Memories harking back again ; 
Known and unknown blended grew 
Into an extra-mundane brew. 

I 'woke unto the land of "fact" 
And tried the theme to reenact — 
But earthly vision closed the door 
To that convincing slimiber-lore . . . 

Does conscious body hinder mind 
Which sleep-freed new access can find 
To regions greater in their scope, 
Where Spirit need no longer grope? 



[no] 



VIEWPOINTS 

Some men like oceans, others ponds. 
Some walk and others fly. 
Objectively he bumps against 

Beyond the Earth's entirety; 
Limits by his own filth fenced — 
Subjectively a man can see 



["H 



THE SUICIDE 

"Realize thyself," the mountains cried- 
The man watched Life limp by, 
Then prayed to God on high--- 

And by his hand, in faith, he died. 



[112] 



ALL TOLD 

In the love of a free full moon 
I have known a constant noon; 
In the wail of a winter night 
I have seen fair hopes in flight. 
And though the wind more often 
Has tried my strength to soften — 
Yet life is a happy scheme 
With the light of its white moonbeam. 



[113] 



OUT OF THE DESERT 

Back come the dusty caravans 
Out of the desert to a flowing land, 
Bearing the weahh of distant shores 
The wish of men to prosper. 

And evenso my soul has gleaned 
Riches, which through vales of tears, 
Still fresh and potent it has brought 
Unto a clime where I may sing. 



114] 



ALONE 

Each man is alone despite his company — 
Alone in his joy, alone in his tears — 
For sympathy, communion, inter-love 
Reach but the man's begotten image; 
Touch not the man as he is 
In the complex of his soul, where he must sail 
A boundless ocean with his single oar — 
Striving to justify each stroke, each hour. 



["5] 



MY LIFE A PATCHWORK 

I pick this flower and listen to that bird, 

I play and work and learn, and love my friends— 

My life a scrapbook is of patches made. 

But I may not view this whole book of my hand 
Alas fair Truth, I then might understand ! 



[ii6] 



I HAVE THE LOVE 

A march of melodies today 
The wayward cloud denies ; 
I rise to dance along the way, 
Passing milestones with their ties. 

These eyes translate to harmony 
The voice of Earth with mine; 
I sing the love-song of my fancy 
Matched where years entwine. 

Wealth of azure sky in pledges, 
Rush to revelry with night — 
Leave my life among the ages, 
With the love and strength to fight. 



[117] 



THE TEMPLE 

It seemed I sat upon a grove-crowned hill — 
Lyre in hand, before a temple door — 
Flushed at the beauty of marble walls, 
Certain of victory evermore. 

Again I went, when Time had moved her years, 
A pilgrim wise with weeping, care, 
And saw midst rifted columns, withered vines : 
Youth's altar with the fire still there. 



[ii8] 



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